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Digital Image – Markarian’s Chain

Here is an annotated image of Markarian’s Chain, the core of the Virgo SuperCluster of galaxies. There are 15 different galaxies captured in this image. The annotations present the name and brightness magnitude of each. Click here to see the full size version.

Two main groups of galaxies have special names – the top group consisting of M84, M86, NGC 4387,and NGC 4388 are known as “The Face” because they form the eyes, nose and mouth of a smiling face.

NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 are known as the “The Eyes” because they are inclined at the same angle with respect to each other and have been likened to a pair of eyes in the darkness.

Image Information:

Canon 60D with a Canon 100-400mm “L” lens, zoomed to 400mm @ F/5.6. 25 subframes of 180 seconds each for a total exposure of 75 minutes. Captured in Nebulosity, processed in StarTools, and finished and annotated in PhotoShop.